Georgia: Minister of Environment Protection and Agriculture Otar Shamugia, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Environment and Natural Resources Maia Bitadze and members of the working group on environmental pollution in the Kvemo Kartli region of the Parliament visited Kazreti, where they got familiarised with the process of fulfilment of the commitments made by the company “Aremji” to the Ministry.
They inspected the water intake infrastructure and treatment plants built with the latest technologies, which protect the rivers – Poladauri, Kazretula and Mashavera from pollution.
“One of the main and important directions of our environmental policy is for large enterprises to be able to meet the requirements of environmental legislation within a reasonable time. These enterprises make a significant contribution to the economy, they employ many people, and their functioning and development are very important, but it should not happen at the expense of a negative impact on the environment. We actively cooperate with companies; This time, we got familiarised with and inspected the ongoing works in “Armji”. We agree that there is progress in many areas. However, there is still some work to be done, there are some mistakes that need to be corrected. We need to work with companies; “With the involvement of the civil sector, we will continue to monitor the process in the future,” Otar Shamugia said.
According to the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, Maia Bitadze, the environmental management plans set by the state for companies are a step forward in the European space. The Ministry and the Parliament will jointly monitor their implementation in the future as well.
“We went through a rather difficult period, but we also have results. As a result of the inspection by the Ministry of Environment Protection and Agriculture, the company “Aremji Gold”, for the first time in the history of its existence, there has been no fact of environmental violation, which is a very good result, but there are questions, shortcomings and violations regarding other companies of Aremji. We think that the company will correct these violations step by step,” said Nino Burchuladze, a representative of the Kvemo Kartli Regional Environmental Pollution Study Working Group.
Four years ago, the company was given long-term and short-term commitments by the Ministry of Environmental Measures. As a company representative noted, the company had correspondence with more than 100 points in order to implement environmental mitigation measures by the Ministry. Large-scale work has been carried out for their implementation and a significant part of the commitments is nearing completion.
